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| Vanquish Anti-Spam 3.1 |
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Reviews November 2005 • Vol.16 Issue 11 Page(s) 27 in print issue |
Vanquish Anti-Spam 3.1 | ||
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Vanquish Anti-Spam 3.1 $24.95 (one-year subscription) Vanquish (508) 486-9040 www.vanquish.com Scorecard Performance 4 Ease Of Use 4 Installation 4 Documentation 4 Price 4 Overall Score 4 / 5  With spam at an all-time high, PC users’ desire to tame this beast is reaching the point of desperation. One company that takes an unconventional but effective approach to spam control is Vanquish Labs. At its core, Vanquish Anti-Spam is a challenge-based solution, whereby an unknown sender must respond to a reply challenge before you will receive his email. Vanquish adds a twist called Bonded Email. If a Vanquish user sends a message to another Vanquish user, he puts up a 5-cent bond asserting the message is legitimate. (Vanquish gives new accounts a small balance.) If the recipient determines the message is not legitimate, he keeps the nickel. If he accepts the message, the sender receives a Trust Bond and pays no more. The concept is intriguing, but one wonders how many spammers would sign up for a service that may cost them. Even without Bonded Email, Vanquish Anti-Spam can be highly effective. To protect your accounts, you configure the email client to forward all mail to Vanquish. (Alternately, you can provide your server information to Vanquish, but it prefers the former option.) Vanquish uses your Address Book to create an Allowed List of senders that will get through to you without challenge. If someone not on your Allowed List sends you a message, Vanquish blocks the message and sends a challenge. If the sender replies to the challenge, Vanquish delivers the message. Vanquish can expand your Allowed List with the address of anyone to whom you send mail as well as anyone who responds to challenges. If a sender doesn’t respond to a challenge, you never see the original message. To reduce the incidence of erroneously blocked messages, Vanquish allows through emails that match the subject matter of your most recent sent messages, as well as any coming from secure Web sites you visited. The stringent approach of Vanquish may be overkill for some users. Take advantage of the 15-day free trial to decide if it is right for you.  by Jennifer Farwell
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